Posted by Melissa Maimann on Apr 6, 2010 in
Birth Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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Regular exercise during the later stages of pregnancy may lower infants’ birth weight into a potentially healthier range without negative effects on glucose metabolism …
The normal reduction in maternal insulin sensitivity that occurs in pregnancy to provide the fetus with nutrients for growth appeared unaffected …
These findings … “could be viewed as a normalization, rather than reduction, of nutrient supply given that our control offspring displayed newborn size parameters consistently above the mean for our reference population,” …
Since big babies are at higher risk for childhood overweight and obesity, “the modest reduction in birth weight in this study may lead to a long-term reduction in the risk for obesity in offspring of women who exercised in pregnancy,”
… birth weight was 143 g lighter on average for offspring in the exercise group …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: exercise
Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
informed consent and childbirth
Every woman who is competent to consent, has the right to refuse any or all professional care. Informed consent must be obtained prior to any procedure being performed.
how to minimise labour intervention in a hospital?
The best way to minimise intervention in a hospital is to be as well informed as you can possible be about all things related to pregnancy, labour, birth, breastfeeding and babies. Read widely, attend independent childbirth education classes and consider employing a private midwife to be with you throughout your labour. She can help you to decide if the proposed interventions are necessary in your situation, she can support you emotionally, mentally and physically and she can aso help to ensure that your birth plan is respected without a fuss.
Do any independent midwives in Sydney offer prenatal care for women who are planning to freebirth?
Yes! This service enables women to access antenatal care from a midwife without the midwife attending the birth. Postnatal care is available if needed.
Do you think there are advantages to continuous monitoring for low-risk women
In a word, no. Intermittent auscultation is the method of choice. Continuous monitoring will increase the chance of a caesarean with no benefit to the mother or baby.
How much is a private midwife
Prices range from $3000 – $6000. Melissa Maimann offers for her clients to pay by the hour, making the service one of the cheapest.
What is a good caesarean rate?
The World Health Organisation recommends that no more than 15% births need to be caesareans. The WHO argues that when caesarean rates exceed 15%, the risks to the mother and baby increase on the whole. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a hospital with a caesarean rate of less than 15%, but birth centres and private midwives have caresarean rates of less than 10-15%.
What is the best hospital in sydney for delivering babies?
It all depends what sort of birth experience you’re after! If you’re wanting a natural birth, home birth will be the best option. If you want a natural birth in a hospital setting, the best options would be birth centre or private midwifery care for a planned hospital birth. If you’re wanting to have intervention in your birth, a hospital birth would be best. If you choose an obstetrician, you’re far more likely to have a caesarean, episiotomy, epidural, forceps or vacuum. Choosing your care provider is the single most important decision you will make in birthing.
Is there a birth centre at westmead hospital?
No, there isn’t. If you’re after a natural birth, the best choice would be a home birth.
C section or natural delivery midwife?
Midwves cannot perform caesareans. If a caesarean was needed, the midwife would call a doctor in to perform it. Most caesareans that are performed are unnecessary and increase the risks to the mother and baby. A natural birth is the safest way to birth, and midwives are qualified specialists in natural birth.
giving birth after birth trauma
Private midwifery care will be really important so that you can have the same midwife all the way through pregnancy, birth and postnatally. It’s also important to debrief your last experience and come to a place where you feel safe to birth again.
high risk midwife sydney
Midwives are not qualified to care for high risk pregnancies. We refer these women onto obstetricians. In most cases, one or two consultations is all that is needed with the obstetrician and the midwife continues the care of the woman.
how many births proceed naturally
What a great question! It all depends what care provider you choose and where you have your baby. You see, if you choose a private midwife and birth at home, you have about a 95% chance of having a vaginal birth. If you birth in a private hospital, you have about a 33% chace of having an unassisted vaginal birth. In some hospitals, the caesarean rate is more than the vaginal birth rate! Sad but true.
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Babies, birth, Birth choices, birth debriefing, Birth trauma, Breastfeeding, Caesarean, childbirth education, Complicated pregnancy or birth, continuity of care, Epidural, exercise, fetal monitoring, freebirth, Home birth, hospital birth, intermittent auscultation, intervention, IVF, Maternity Services Review, midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery services, Normal Birth, Nutrition, Obstetrics, postnatal depression, Preconception care, Public and private hospitals, VBAC
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Feb 16, 2010 in
Birth,
Caesarean,
Midwifery,
Normal Birth,
Obstetrics Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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Being overweight or obese increases a woman’s chances of having an extra-big baby …
Excess weight in and of itself also sharply increased a woman’s risk of pre-eclampsia …
Women have more difficulty delivering very large babies, while these newborns are also at risk of suffering injury during birth, including shoulder dislocation. While women who are overweight or obese are known to run a greater risk of having very large babies and experiencing other pregnancy complications, it has been difficult to separate out the effects of a mother’s weight from those of gestational diabetes …
This led them to investigate whether BMI … a standard measure of weight in relation to height used to gauge how fat or thin a person is — might influence pregnancy risks and fetal and newborn health, independently of a woman’s blood sugar levels.
… women with BMIs of 42 or greater … were at more than triple the risk of having an excessively large baby, compared to the thinnest women in the study …
The heaviest women’s risks of having a C-section were more than doubled, while their likelihood of pre-eclampsia was 14-fold greater than for the leanest women …
… dietary changes can effectively treat gestational diabetes for more than 90 percent of women with the condition.
“… treating gestational diabetes going forward is going to continue to be beneficial,” the researcher said. “We have much less evidence at this point as to how to neutralize or reduce the impact of overweight on pregnancy outcome.”
… it’s probably a woman’s weight before she gets pregnant, rather than how much she gains during pregnancy, that’s important in determining risk.
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, exercise, intervention, Normal Birth, Nutrition, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Jan 23, 2010 in
Birth Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
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In recent years, there has been a large increase in the prevalence of overweight and obese women of childbearing age, with approximately 51% of non-pregnant women ages 20 to 39 being classified as overweight or obese.
… obesity in pregnant women is associated with pregnancy complications, birth defects, as well as a greater risk of childhood and adult obesity in infants born to obese mothers.
… obese women are more likely to have an infant with a neural tube defect, heart defects, or multiple anomalies than women with a normal BMI.
Obese pregnant women also put themselves at a higher risk of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia, induction of labor, cesarean delivery, and postpartum hemorrhage, compared with women with normal pregnancy body mass indexes.
… obesity among pregnant mothers is linked to childhood obesity in their infants. Obesity during pregnancy more than doubles the risk of obesity in children at two to four years of age …
The article emphasizes the need for women to consult with their healthcare providers about what their ideal pre-conception weight should be …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, exercise, Nutrition, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Dec 3, 2009 in
Midwifery Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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Breast-feeding … can significantly lower a woman’s risk of metabolic syndrome …
… Breast-feeding for longer than nine months dropped the risk of metabolic syndrome by 86 percent in women with gestational diabetes. Women without gestational diabetes saw a 56 percent reduction in their risk of metabolic syndrome …
… The benefits of breast-feeding for infants … include lower risk of ear infections, stomach problems, respiratory illnesses, asthma, skin allergies, diabetes and SIDS. For women, breast-feeding appears to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and postpartum depression …
Metabolic syndrome [includes] … abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, low levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol, high levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, high triglycerides, insulin resistance, elevated markers of inflammation and a tendency for blood to clot …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Breastfeeding, exercise, Nutrition, postnatal depression
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Nov 30, 2009 in
Midwifery Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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… Health authorities keen to prevent birth defects and pregnancy complications that can arise from obesity, diabetes and poor lifestyle and nutrition habits will offer the advice in new state-government-funded clinics.
An experienced midwife will run the PLaN (preconception, lifestyle and nutrition) clinics.
A trial clinic opened at the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick … the scheme has now been expanded to … Sydney Hospital.
Women … can have consultations by phone …
“They may need to have some blood tests, then sort out … weight loss,” … “… can we make sure they’re taking vitamins, taking folic acid before they get pregnant?
… If their BMI was above 30 … they may be referred to a dietitian.
Women would also be advised to quit smoking and drinking … and take folic acid to reduce the chance of having a baby with spina bifida …
… ” … increasing numbers of people are looking to have children and this service aims to help put them on a path to a healthy pregnancy before they conceive,” …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: exercise, midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery services, Nutrition, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Oct 26, 2009 in
Birth,
Normal Birth,
Obstetrics Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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… obesity cuts the chance of IVF working and increases the risk of premature birth and stillbirth.
… [the] impact becomes more profound as weight increases …
… being overweight and obese affects natural conception too and has a profound impact on a woman and her baby’s health throughout pregnancy and beyond.
… the most obese women … had 35% less chance of falling pregnant and a 59% increased chance of giving birth to a very premature baby …
… “The take-home message … is that women need to reduce their weight before trying fertility treatment.
… “Obesity is a state of inflammation and … It is not conducive to conception and … pregnancy.”
… 32% of women over 16 are overweight … and 21% … are obese …
… being overweight increases the risk of diabetes during and after pregnancy, pre-eclampsia and developing a potentially lethal DVT.
… the chances of recognising foetal abnormalities decrease in overweight and obese women because the quality of ultrasound images falls.
… “Just … losing 5% of their body weight may be enough to restore ovulation in women who are overweight.”
… “Women need to understand that obesity cannot only affect themselves – it can affect their child. If the mother is obese, their child is three times more likely to be obese; and if the father is obese too the child is eight times more likely to be obese.”
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: Complicated pregnancy or birth, exercise, intervention, IVF, Nutrition, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Oct 6, 2009 in
Birth Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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Along with keeping mom healthy, regular exercise during pregnancy helps prevent excessive newborn weight …
… the odds of delivering a too-big baby dropped by as much as 28 percent in women who exercised regularly in their second and third trimesters during their first pregnancy.
… a heavier birth weight poses a risk to both the baby and the mother. If a baby weighs more than 8.8 pounds, the risk of delivery problems, C-sections, postpartum hemorrhage and low Apgar scores all increase … Larger birth weights have also been associated with an increased risk of obesity later in life …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: exercise
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Oct 3, 2009 in
Birth Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email me or call 0400 418 448.
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Childbearing is associated directly with future development of the metabolic syndrome abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease risk factors and for women who have had gestational diabetes, the risk is more than twice greater …
… After controlling for preconception measurements of body mass index (BMI), all metabolic syndrome components and physical activity, Lewis and her colleagues found that women who had given birth to one child or more than one child were independently associated with a higher incidence of the metabolic syndrome (33 percent and 62 percent higher, respectively) than women who had not had children. Among women with gestational diabetes, once baseline adjustments were made, the researchers found that they were nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to develop the metabolic syndrome than those women who had not had gestational diabetes-complicated pregnancies.
“Our findings suggest that childbearing can contribute to the development of the metabolic syndrome and that part of the association may be through weight gain and lack of physical activity,” Lewis said. “And, although women with gestational diabetes had the highest relative risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, those with non-gestational diabetes pregnancies made up the larger at-risk group.”…
… the best way for everyone to prevent disease … is to make the necessary lifestyle changes: exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet.
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: birth, Complicated pregnancy or birth, exercise, Nutrition, postnatal depression, Preconception care
Posted by Melissa Maimann on Aug 15, 2009 in
Birth,
Midwifery,
Normal Birth For further information, contact Melissa Maimann at Essential Birth Consulting.
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Physicians should recommend low to moderate levels of exercise to their pregnant patients, even if they have not exercised prior to pregnancy … exercise can strengthen and improve overall musculoskeletal and physiologic health as well as pregnancy related symptoms.
… As recently as the 1990s, there was concern that exercise could be detrimental to a pregnant woman and her fetus. These past concerns included a focus on normal changes related to musculoskeletal health that occur during pregnancy, such as increased ligament laxity, weight gain and change in the center of gravity. Today, some physicians continue to advise their pregnant patients to ease back on exercise or refrain from it altogether if they have not already made it a part of their lifestyle.
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448
Tags: exercise
